Ockham’s razor is the idea that, in trying to understand something, getting unnecessary information out of the way is the fastest way to the truth or to the best explanation.
For example Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity is based on the relative simple concept of a curvature in a space-time metric. Granted the math required to determine the gravitational forces on an object can be very complicated and not easy for many to understand however understanding or visualizing how a curvature in space-time can cause objects to accelerate is relative easy to do. This is because one can form a relatively simple physical image of it based on how objects such as a ball is accelerated on a curved two dimensional surface on the earth and them extrapolating that to a curvature in a space-time metric.
However, even though in 1917, he added a cosmological constant to his equations which some fell would provide one of simplest mathematical explanations for Dark energy it is difficult for many to conceptually integrate it with the physical imagery that is provided by his theory.
Yet, this may be due to the fact that Einstein chose to define gravity in terms of time or a space-time dimension while the accelerative forces of Dark Energy are related to the spatial properties of an expanding universe.
In other words, as Ockham pointed out the best way to understand it would be to eliminate time or the space-time dimension from his general theory of gravity and replace it with spatial one because as was just mentioned our universe is not expanding through time dimension therefore it is not necessary to our understanding of its spatial expansion.
Einstein gave us the ability to do this he derived the physical properties of a gravity in a space-time environment in terms mass and energy and the constant velocity of light because that provided a method of converting a unit of time in a space-time environment with unit of space in four *spatial* dimensions. Additionally because the velocity of light is constant he also defined a one to one quantitative correspondence between his space-time universe and one made up of four *spatial* dimensions.
This fact that one can use Einstein’s theories to qualitatively and quantitatively derive the spatial properties of energy in a space-time universe in terms of four *spatial* dimensions is one the bases of assuming as was done in the article “Defining energy†Nov 27, 2007 that all forms of energy can be derived in terms of a spatial displacement in a “surface” of a three-dimensional space manifold with respect to a fourth *spatial* dimension.
In other words one can not only use Einstein’s equations to quantitatively and qualitatively derive how energy interacts with time in a space-time dimension but also how it would interact with its spatial equivalent in four spatial dimensions.
We know from the study of thermodynamics that energy flows from areas of high to ones with low density very similar to how water flows form an elevated or “high density” point to a lower one.
For example if the walls of an above ground pool filled with water collapse the elevated two-dimensional surface of the water will flow or expand and accelerate outward towards the three-dimensional environment sounding it.
Yet we know from observations of the cosmic background radiation that presently our three-dimensional universe has an average energy component equal to about 3.7 degrees Kelvin.
However this means that according to concepts developed in the article “Defining energy” (mentioned earlier) the three-dimensional “surface” of our universe which has an average energy component of 3.7 degree Kelvin would be elevated with respect to a fourth *spatial* dimension.
Similarly if the “surface” of a three-dimensional manifold was elevated with respect to a fourth *spatial* dimension as Einstein tell us as it would be if one redefined his space-time universe in terms of four spatial dimension then it would be accelerated outward for the same reason as how the water in a pool whose sides had collapsed.
In other words one qualitatively understand the casually of the accelerated expansion of our universe in term of the physical image of water accelerating out of collapsed pool.
Some may feel that this is an over simplification of what appears on the surface to be a rather complex phenomena such as Dark Energy but is no more simplistic that the one use to help us understand how gravity works in a space-time environment. Granted the math behind this concept may be complex and difficult to understand as it is with the gravitational curvature in space-time however that does not mean that we cannot use it to understand its causality.
It should be remember that Einstein’s genius and the symmetry of his mathematics allows us to choose whether to define the forces associated with gravity and dark energy in either four *spatial* dimensions or four dimensional space-time.
Later Jeff
Copyright 2016 Jeffrey O’Callaghan